


The Last Night

by Cecret



Category: The Good Place (TV)
Genre: F/M, First Kiss, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Hellstrop, Love Confession, perhaps too much fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-10
Updated: 2020-09-10
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:55:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26388298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cecret/pseuds/Cecret
Summary: “And you, bud? Are you up for one last trip to the beach?”Or how Eleanor and Michael spent their last night in the neighborhood 12358W. (Alternative take on "Best Self").
Relationships: Michael (The Good Place) & Eleanor Shellstrop, Michael (The Good Place)/Eleanor Shellstrop
Comments: 12
Kudos: 42





	The Last Night

**Author's Note:**

> This is basically an apology for what I did to us the other day. I woke up in a better mood yesterday and realized my brain needed some... positive feelings, so last night I wrote this little one-shot that has been circling my mind for a while.
> 
> To avoid triangles and five dimensional blobs, there's no Cheleanor tape in this tiny universe.

Her hair looked more silver than gold under the moonlight.

It still resembled the sand beneath her head, but it certainly felt softer, so he kept running his fingers through it, trying to identify the movements that made her blink slower or sigh, fascinated by what he used to believe a ridiculous and useless mass of threads that creepily sprouted out of human heads.

But this was no creepy bundle of threads.

This was Eleanor’s hair, and Michael was frightened by the prospect of this being the last ―just as much as the first― time he would get the opportunity to touch it.

If he had known caressing humans felt so much better than hurting them, he would have stopped torturing ages ago to dedicate every hour of his existence to comfort them. After all, he recently learned not every creature that fell in his hands deserved to be eternally miserable.

And _her?_ Well, he would be retired before allowing it. And not even a burning sun around his essence nor a titanium bar on his genitals could stop him from saving her from pain.

The curious portion of his brain wondered what Shawn and the others would think if they were to see him like this, warmly staring at the face of his supposed torturée calmly resting on his lap, and watching her with the same amount of wonder with which she observed the moon above them. No matter the theory, his thoughts were the same: he did not give a fork.

The hug from this morning seemed to tear down each and all the barriers he had put up around his humans, so he just kept touching her after that, because that let him know she was safe and sound next to him: she was not in a train to the Bad Place, and much less in a cell there. They were both here, in the remaining shells of what he had dared to call Hell once, and they were alone. If there was one thing Michael was sure of, it was that he would seize this moment for as long as he could.

Too bad his ocean led to nowhere itself, because he felt tempted to drive her even to the corners of the universe, just to be certain that no harm came upon her. He could always call Janet to build them an island or an underground bunker and hide her and the rest of his friends there, in case the other demons came back; but that would break this perfect moment that already seemed fragile by the dark promise of a dangerous fate before them. It was so beautiful Michael imagined them both as part of a snow globe (a sand globe?), an idyllic portrait of something that felt almost too special to be real.

“I can’t believe the others just decided to go to sleep. Might be our last hours not being completely miserable.”

Only her voice could break the silence without risking the beauty of the moment.

“Is it bad of me to say I’m not complaining?”

She shifted slightly to meet his eyes. “Depends. If you say you can’t stand the other three and only saved them ‘cause they follow me around, it might be.”

“No.” A light laugh escaped him, curated by his will of protecting the perfectly balanced atmosphere around them. No sudden movements or sharp sounds that destabilize it were allowed. “That’s not the reason. I- Actually, I’ve been meaning to tell you something, and I don’t know if I could do it if the others were nearby.”

At one point, he had glanced up and turned to look at the waves while he said that, the intensity of her stare too- simply too much for the thoughts circling his brain. But he still felt the muscles of her shoulder blades tense on top of his leg at his words.

“I need help identifying a feeling. I have a hunch of what it could be, but I’m not entirely sure. What I do know is that I still want to tell you about it, in case I don’t get another chance.”

“Shoot.”

If she was pretending not to be nervous, she was becoming a terrible liar.

But he was nervous, too.

So before she could scratch her arm, as she always did in those cases, he reached out his free hand to do it himself, which earned him a curious glance from her.

“I think I’ll begin by describing it, as best as I can.” He looked down for a moment, holding her gaze as if it were the sole fuel of his courage ―in some ways, it was―, and looked away before taking a deep breath. “I- I think about you very often. Perhaps all the time. When I’m alone or with the other demons, you’re what keeps me from spiraling down another crisis. This time, one about what my existence has been before meeting you, nothing more than a succession of-”

_None of us exist outside our jobs._

_We have no homes. We have no hobbies or relationships._

_We get the names of the people to torture, we torture them, we get more names._

He swallowed, unable to continue saying something that did not even need to be said. “Well, you know what… And when we’re with the group, I can’t stop focusing on you. It’s a good thing I read all the books Chidi gave me before we became friends, or I think I’d still be on Plato, flipping back the pages because I can’t remember what I just read.”

He giggled at that. It sounded truly ridiculous: a demon having trouble paying attention because his mind kept wandering to a certain human: one day for her smile, another for a compliment or maybe because of the way she looked at him.

“And when I’m with you… It seems as if nothing else mattered. When I look at you, I have-” One of his hands roughly massaged his chest, trying to get rid of some inner tension that inhabited it. “I have this feeling here, but I don't have real organs, so I don't know what that is. All I know is that it's warm and light, but also stiff? It sometimes seems as if _something_ was pulling me towards you, like I have this need to look at you to know where I am or where I'm supposed to go. And a weight softens whenever I touch you.”

He hesitated a little before stretching an arm and holding one of her raised knees, stealing a glance at her cuffed jeans, still splattered with sea water.

“I can't tell you how much I appreciate the time we spend together. You taught me, a long time ago, what it was like to have fun, and the world seems brighter since I know that feeling. Each time I try something new, you're the one I want to share it with. You're the one I want to talk to about- well, about everything, actually. Because no one understands me like you do. And because we have the same, perhaps not one hundred percent ethical, sense of humor.”

“I know I never feel as… content as I am when I'm with you. And if I got offered basically anything in the universe or spending eternity with you, just like we are right now, I think I would let my butt fade in the sand and my legs go numb forever.”

He was still not looking at her, but felt her hand crawling up his chest and staying there, playing with one of the buttons of his shirt. She probably knew there was still much left to say for him.

“Yesterday, my boss gave me something he described as ‘everything I'd ever wanted’. And it sure was, at some point of my existence. But when I saw it in my hands, finally mine, when I should've had some sense of accomplishment, I felt _nothing._ If anything, I felt ashamed of who I used to be. And if someone came here now and told me they can give me everything I want, I wouldn't believe them. Because I don't see myself wanting something more than what I have right now.”

A single finger tested the distance between her knee and the hem of her pants, slowly going up and down her shin. “I feel incredibly grateful to you. I know I owe you thousands of apologies for everything I’ve done to you, certainly more than eight hundred, but for some reason I feel like a ‘thank you’ is too tied to each ‘I’m sorry’, so I can’t really avoid saying it, too. Thank you for… changing me. For making me _want_ to change.”

Her thumb ran the line of his jaw when she whispered an answer in the softest tone he had ever heard from her lips, making him wonder if she did not want to break the moment either.

“I’m not the ethics professor, bud.”

“It’s not all about the books. All I know is that I wouldn’t be who I am today if it weren’t because of you.”

“I think a part of you has always been good. Or at least, not super evil. There must be a reason you changed so much in such a short time.”

There was a note of pride in her voice and he concealed the urge to tell her she _did_ kind of sound like a teacher there, just leaning into her touch and sighing, instead.

“Maybe. I like to think so, at least. But a lot of it is having someone as inspiring as you in front of me. Because that’s the other thing. I deeply admire you. To say you’re my role model sounds… odd. And not entirely correct. I think you were- you were my North Star. And when I saw you, when I _really_ saw you, I figured out the path that I wanted to follow. You are incredibly remarkable, Eleanor. You’re everything I didn’t know I wanted to be. I want to be good because of you. I want to be the best being-”

She interrupted him and poked his chin. “Honorary human.”

He nodded, smiling at the memory of what turned out to be the most special night of his existence.

“You’re gonna stop interrupting me so I can finish what I was saying?”

Her fingers crawled from his face to his neck and settled on the back of it, lightly stroking his hair. “But I don’t want you to finish. No one had ever said so many special things about me. So no, I’ll keep interrupting you if it means you'll keep speaking.”

“I could keep talking about you all night long, if you want to. I _did_ read a file with your entire life laid out on it.”

“Fork, you must be the only one in the universe who could know all the crabby things I did on Earth and still wants to hang out with me.”

His eyes narrowed at that. He could not possibly be the only one to see how special she was.

“Janet knows that stuff, too.”

“Yeah, and she’s with Jason now. Weirdly, that kinda proves my point.”

He looked down just at the moment she cursed under her breath and shut her eyes closed. After a second, she slowly opened one and then the other, her expression softening at the sight of his smile. The one she gave him back was almost apologetic.

She didn’t need to say it, he understood.

_Sorry for getting ahead of you._

But he nodded and let his fingers find the spot on her scalp that made her close her eyes.

“I guess it does.”

She reached out a hand to grab the one that was on her face and slowly lowered it, lacing her own fingers with his. “What does your hunch say about this feeling, Michael?”

“I think-” Shyly, slowly, always pondering and never taking anything of it all for granted, he raised their tangled hands and pressed a kiss ―his first kiss― on the back of her palm. His nervousness, suddenly creeping up his back once again, made his voice slightly tremble, the weight of the words too heavy for a being such as him, who was not even supposed to _feel_ at all. “I think I’m falling in love with you.”

She sat up, holding his adoring gaze and never letting him go. With her legs folded beneath her, she faced him and took her free hand to the back of his neck once again.

And then she smiled.

Michael never thought he would witness such a beautiful smile.

But then again, he never thought he could be part of something as special as Eleanor Shellstrop’s existence.

“I think I’m falling in love with you, too, bud. Because I had never met someone who was willing to challenge the entire world for what they believe in, someone as brave and wonderful as you. You know why I trusted you yesterday?”

He shrugged, because he honestly had no idea.

“Because- just because. Because I had _never_ let myself believe in anyone before you. You basically restored my faith in the universe showing me you could change. And you didn't do that because of me or because of Chidi. You did it because you found your little voice and stuck by it even more firmly than I have. You're like the best mirror I've ever seen myself in, man, because this time, we changed together. And I think that, if the Eleanor sitting here is the best version of me that ever existed, that's because of you. And all those times we came to this spot, all the late nights you sat by my side as I finished a paper (and usually helped me finish it because I hadn't done the readings), all our serious talks and fun simulations… Every day, for these past months, I've seen you become _you_ , I've seen who the real Michael had always been. Funny, dorky, passionate and kind. Buddy, the real Michael is amazing! And he was already somewhere, in there. I can tell.”

Her forehead came to rest against his, a couple of thumbs shedding tears from his face he had not even noticed were falling.

“Hey, what you said today about Tahani, Jason and Janet mashing foodholes… Have you ever kissed anyone?”

His eyes had closed almost a minute before she spoke, but he could still hear the smile on her voice.

“I had never even hugged anyone before today, so I’ll let you guess the answer to that.”

“Can I give you your first kiss, too?”

He wished he could say what he was thinking: that there was no more perfect being to fill their last day here with as many ‘firsts’ as she wanted. Eleanor was the one who introduced him to a brand new worldview, the one who gave meaning to his existence and taught him there was something _more_ , something that could be seized, cherished and protected, that waited for him at the very realm outside of the Bad Place.

Something he shared with his friends, a little bit more with Janet and, most of all, with the truly _special_ human being before him.

But his throat was filled with too many thoughts, and he had barely managed to sort this one out after weeks of contemplation.

So he just nodded, grinning widely, because even if her eyes were closed, too, the hands grabbing his face would follow his movements.

Her lips travelled around his face, and it seemed as if she had baptized every inch of his skin. It surely fit them: he had never _adored_ anyone as much as her. So when she kissed one cheek and then the other, his forehead, nose and chin, before teasing the corners of his smile, he was convinced that this was what having faith in something larger than one felt like.

And Eleanor Shellstrop was the grandest, most impressive being the universe had ever homed.

She briefly pressed her lips against his and maybe one more tear fell down his cheek. He was not sure.

What he knew with absolute certainty was that this woman was magical enough to challenge all his previous beliefs, to pull on his hand and guide him somewhere unknown where true bliss awaited. A place she was also looking for. And now, they had shared something so intimate that it felt as if the path before them had become clearer.

Both let out a giggle when she broke the kiss.

“Thoughts on kissing now? I like the way you talk about human stuff. It's like a weird lens to look at things.”

Oh, he would love to say something, only to make her happy, but all he was thinking about was kissing her again.

So he held her face and leaned in slowly, letting her take the last step. A hum escaped him when her parted lips moved, this time more passionately, against his, and he wondered how he could miss out on something so thrilling for such a long time. His hands dared to settle on her waist and pulled her closer, the warmth of her mouth electric and inviting, making him aware of all the spots in which his skin touched hers.

He moaned when her tongue traced his lip, sighed when she lightly bit it, and swallowed a curse when he felt her back away.

“Wow.”

“Wanna backtrack on that whole ‘kissing is gross’ rant?”

“Oh, don't get me wrong. The mechanics of this are incredibly _bizarre._ But… I like kissing you. It feels good. Fork that, it feels-” As if nothing was impossible. And he felt like be understood the universe a little bit more after it. But maybe that was just what it felt like to meet her, and this is only one more step he took following his North Star. “It feels incredible. Almost as incredible as you are.”

She smiled warmly at him and buried her face in the crook of his neck, snuggling close to him and pressing their chests together. The feeling allowed him to imagine he had a heart that pounded along hers.

Was it possible to feel more human than ever at this moment and, at once, have the burning desire of truly turning into one of them? They had welcomed him into their little family, the one his own kind had refused him, and that held a sort of beauty that only laid in repaired artifacts, not in perfectly intact ones.

“I love you, Eleanor.”

He felt her tighten her embrace around him and made a mental note to keep saying it as often as he had the chance, because she deserved to hear it. He would pronounce the words for all those moments she should have heard them down on Earth, for each and every time she screwed up his plans, filling him with the most frustrating type of wonder, and simply, because it was real.

And because he had never felt something so beautiful.

“I love you, too.”

And that? Well, that was pure magic.

A bit overwhelmed by the events of the previous hour, the past day and the last three hundred years, he laid them both down on the sand and took a shaky breath. His eyes darted to the hair splattered around his chest and he went back to touching it, letting his other hand lazily roam across her back.

“Do you want me to keep saying nice things about you, like I said I would?”

“That sounds like a good plan…” She raised her head and met his eyes before dropping a kiss on his neck, a movement so simple it did not have the right to feel as good as it did. “For part of our last night here, at least.”

  
  



End file.
